This invention relates to ramps for vehicles with elevated floors and, more particularly, to a retractable ramp adapted for guiding and rolling a stretcher onto the elevated floor of an ambulance.
When loading heavy objects into vehicles with elevated floors, such as van-like trucks, personnel often experience considerable physical strain in having to lift the object up a relatively large vertical height to the floor. This problem is particularly acute when ambulance attendants, especially women, have to lift a stretcher and patient into a truck-like ambulance. Excessive physical strain on the attendants endangers the safety of the patient on the stretcher, as well as the health of the attendant.
It is, therefore, a general object of this invention to facilitate the lifting of heavy objects onto an elevated floor.
It is a more specific object of this invention to provide a retractable ramp adapted to facilitate lifting a stretcher carrying a patient up onto the elevated floor of a truck-like ambulance.